Careers aren’t like ladders

Careers aren't like the ladders on the cover of most career books, they usually require a map so you can choose your own adventure. There isn't a right or wrong way "to career." There isn't a way to win at "careers." You are the only one who gets to decide if you are successful, because you are the one who gets to define success for you.

In my 40s, I walked away from corporate America. I opened my own consulting business and published two best selling books. I call this phase of my career my "first retirement", and in my first retirement I joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in Biomedical Engineering.

At the end of the day, the decision for me to change my job wasn't even made by me. It was made by someone in another state who may not have ever met me.

But the key is that their decision did not throw me off my ladder because I never believed my career was a ladder in the first place. And today I am able to impact the lives of so many more people than I could have ever done in my other career.